African migrants fleeing to Europe creates crisis

AHMED MOHAMMEDASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Published: Friday, March 17, 2006 at 6:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, March 17, 2006 at 12:00 a.m.

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania - African migrants desperate to escape the world's poorest continent are streaming through Mauritania to embark on a perilous ocean voyage to Europe that has already killed hundreds.
The exodus from the desert country on the coast of northwest Africa prompted a call for help Thursday from Mauritania's prime minister, and European leaders concerned about absorbing the immigrants already on their shores were eager to cooperate.
The situation garnered new international attention this week after Spain said Wednesday that the bodies of 24 people - all apparently from sub-Saharan Africa - had been discovered in waters off the coast of Mauritania. Spain also intercepted some 400 Africans trying to reach its Canary Islands - a single-day record - in nine overcrowded boats that had set out from Mauritania.
The incidents prompted the Spanish government to send a delegation to Mauritania Thursday for talks on measures to try to slow the rising number of hazardous crossings.
Meanwhile, Spanish officials said 101 African men who set out from Mauritania in two boats reached the Canary Island of Tenerife on Thursday.
More than 1,000 Africans - some driven by hopes of jobs, others to escape their continent's many wars - have died over the past four months while trying to sail in small wooden boats from Mauritania to the Canary Islands, according to the country's branch of the Red Crescent.
Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar called on the West to send planes, boats and vehicles to help Mauritania better patrol its borders. He said authorities arrested 3,900 migrants in 2005, and some 1,200 have already been detained this year.
"What is arriving is unimaginable," he said.
Boubacar appealed in particular to the European Union, the destination of most of the African migrants. His pleas come at a time when Islamic terrorism and ethnic clashes in Europe have some Europeans questioning whether immigrants from the developing world can be successfully integrated in the West.
Counterterrorism experts have also expressed concern about militants setting up bases in Mauritania's deserts. Though that has yet to be established as a major threat in west or north Africa, last year the U.S. military conducted counterterrorism exercises with nine African armies, including Mauritania's.
The European Union's top justice and interior affairs official, Franco Frattini, said Thursday the EU stood ready to provide emergency aid to Mauritania to help police its borders.
Frattini, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a U.N. migration conference in Belgium, said he would also lay out new proposals for an emergency fund for quick responses in the coming weeks, as well as setting up European patrols in the Mediterranean to intercept illegal migrants.
Mauritania does not offer the easiest route to Europe, but other countries just across the ocean from southern Europe have cracked down on would-be immigrants.
Last year, Africans who had traveled across the Sahara Desert stormed two Spanish enclaves in northern Morocco. The clashes in September and October left 11 migrants dead, some shot by security forces.
Mauritania's neighbors also have reportedly increased patrols along the trans-Sahara Desert trade routes. So human traffickers have turned to traditional wooden fishing canoes to transport migrants to the Canary Islands - hundreds of miles across treacherous Atlantic waters from Mauritania.
More than 3,000 migrants have reached the Canary Islands from Africa so far this year, compared to 4,751 for all of 2005 and 8,519 in 2004.
Aid workers say the traffickers charge less for the risky Mauritania route. It costs about $550 to make the ocean crossing, compared with about $2,000 for a caravan across the Sahara. Africans pool clan or village resources to pay the fees.
Ibrahima, a would-be emigrant from Mali who gave only one name, said he tried twice to reach northern Morocco, but both times had to turn around after encountering security forces.
He's now waiting in the Mauritanian capital to try to reach the Canary Islands.
"It's a shame for me to return to my village in the center of Mali. It's a shame for my whole family, who are waiting for me to send money from Europe," Ibrahima said. "That's why I'd rather die on the seas than return to Mali."

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania - African migrants desperate to escape the world's poorest continent are streaming through Mauritania to embark on a perilous ocean voyage to Europe that has already killed hundreds.<BR>
The exodus from the desert country on the coast of northwest Africa prompted a call for help Thursday from Mauritania's prime minister, and European leaders concerned about absorbing the immigrants already on their shores were eager to cooperate.<BR>
The situation garnered new international attention this week after Spain said Wednesday that the bodies of 24 people - all apparently from sub-Saharan Africa - had been discovered in waters off the coast of Mauritania. Spain also intercepted some 400 Africans trying to reach its Canary Islands - a single-day record - in nine overcrowded boats that had set out from Mauritania.<BR>
The incidents prompted the Spanish government to send a delegation to Mauritania Thursday for talks on measures to try to slow the rising number of hazardous crossings.<BR>
Meanwhile, Spanish officials said 101 African men who set out from Mauritania in two boats reached the Canary Island of Tenerife on Thursday.<BR>
More than 1,000 Africans - some driven by hopes of jobs, others to escape their continent's many wars - have died over the past four months while trying to sail in small wooden boats from Mauritania to the Canary Islands, according to the country's branch of the Red Crescent.<BR>
Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar called on the West to send planes, boats and vehicles to help Mauritania better patrol its borders. He said authorities arrested 3,900 migrants in 2005, and some 1,200 have already been detained this year.<BR>
"What is arriving is unimaginable," he said.<BR>
Boubacar appealed in particular to the European Union, the destination of most of the African migrants. His pleas come at a time when Islamic terrorism and ethnic clashes in Europe have some Europeans questioning whether immigrants from the developing world can be successfully integrated in the West.<BR>
Counterterrorism experts have also expressed concern about militants setting up bases in Mauritania's deserts. Though that has yet to be established as a major threat in west or north Africa, last year the U.S. military conducted counterterrorism exercises with nine African armies, including Mauritania's.<BR>
The European Union's top justice and interior affairs official, Franco Frattini, said Thursday the EU stood ready to provide emergency aid to Mauritania to help police its borders.<BR>
Frattini, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a U.N. migration conference in Belgium, said he would also lay out new proposals for an emergency fund for quick responses in the coming weeks, as well as setting up European patrols in the Mediterranean to intercept illegal migrants.<BR>
Mauritania does not offer the easiest route to Europe, but other countries just across the ocean from southern Europe have cracked down on would-be immigrants.<BR>
Last year, Africans who had traveled across the Sahara Desert stormed two Spanish enclaves in northern Morocco. The clashes in September and October left 11 migrants dead, some shot by security forces.<BR>
Mauritania's neighbors also have reportedly increased patrols along the trans-Sahara Desert trade routes. So human traffickers have turned to traditional wooden fishing canoes to transport migrants to the Canary Islands - hundreds of miles across treacherous Atlantic waters from Mauritania.<BR>
More than 3,000 migrants have reached the Canary Islands from Africa so far this year, compared to 4,751 for all of 2005 and 8,519 in 2004.<BR>
Aid workers say the traffickers charge less for the risky Mauritania route. It costs about $550 to make the ocean crossing, compared with about $2,000 for a caravan across the Sahara. Africans pool clan or village resources to pay the fees.<BR>
Ibrahima, a would-be emigrant from Mali who gave only one name, said he tried twice to reach northern Morocco, but both times had to turn around after encountering security forces.<BR>
He's now waiting in the Mauritanian capital to try to reach the Canary Islands.<BR>
"It's a shame for me to return to my village in the center of Mali. It's a shame for my whole family, who are waiting for me to send money from Europe," Ibrahima said. "That's why I'd rather die on the seas than return to Mali."<BR>